April 6 to organize protest calling for release of detained students

Apr. 20, 2014 12:22

April 6 Youth Movement Members - YOUM7

By AYA IBRAHIM

CAIRO: April 6 Youth Movement announced it would organize a protest on Sunday afternoon in front of the the headquarters of the Ministry of Higher Education, demanding the release of detained students as well as the return of students who have been dismissed.

During a Saturday phone interview with Mehwar TV channel, former member of Gamaa al-Islamiya‘s Shura Council Nageh Ibrahim also said that he calls for the immediate release of all detained minors and students, stressing that Egypt is now suffering from a state of retreat.

Ibrahim said that “the imprisonment of minors and students negatively impacts them as it teaches them either obstenence or jihad against the state’s institutions.”

After the National Council for Human Rights’ meeting with President Adly Mansour on April 15, the council’s vice president Abdel Ghafar Shokr said on state television that the number of people imprisoned pending investigation has increased, including children. He also claimed that some detainees have been assaulted.

The members of the council demanded the cancellation of the protest law and imprisonment of youth. He said the president replied that the current period requires a continuance of the law.

The protest law, adopted in November, has raised anger among activists and political parties for containing articles that requires protesters to give the authorities three days notice before any public gathering as well as notify them of the purpose of the gathering and the slogans that are to be chanted in it.